Propaganda Paper: Bowling for Columbine

Massacre, death and destruction; these were the actions of Columbine high school massacre killers Eric Harris and Dylen Klebold. Director Michael Moore propagates in his documentary, Bowling for Columbine, (2002), that the obsession and relatively easy access to obtain guns in the United States contribute to the many difficult events throughout recent history of the United States. The Columbine high school shooting is one of the events that were discussed in the documentary. Two points that were made in regards to the contributions for their acts or their behavior were, the easy accessibility of guns in the U.S. and a comparison of the U.S. gun-murder rate with other countries.

On April 20, 1999, high school seniors Eric Harris and Dylen Klebold when on a shooting rampage against their fellow students and faculty at Columbine High school in Littleton, Colorado. There were twelve students and one teacher dead at the end of the day with multiple persons wounded. In the documentary Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore discusses the events of that fateful April morning. In this, he explains the many different theories that were to blame for, for the inhumane acts of the massacre killers. Moore states that one of the reasons these two teenage killers did what they did was because of the easy access they had in obtaining guns and many other weapons. He went so far as to imply that the store Kmart was partially responsible for the tragic events that took place. Moore, along with survivors of the massacre went to the Kmart corporate headquarters to show representatives of Kmart the damage their product caused. In this case, the product was the bullet/s that caused their scars and wounds. One survivor was in a wheelchair. After a long wait, the three advocates accomplished to get Kmart to stop selling bullets.

Moore implies that the easy access of weapons and the fascination with guns amongst Americans played role into the contributing factors that caused Harris and Klebold to do what hey had done. Another way he made audiences believe that fascination with guns in America was high, was that he compared murder rates involving guns with other countries such as Canada and Europe. Overall, even though the other countries have more leniency in obtaining weapons, the U.S. topped the charts by thousands up in comparison.

Moore, successfully fulfilled his purpose in this documentary by providing background of the event or incident and by researching and investigating the many reasons society has theorized in relevance to detecting why the teenage killers did what they did. Some of the theories that were thrown out there, were the parents, lack of gun control, and accusing artists such as Marylin Manson for his lyrics in his music. Society was panicked and wanted to know the tall tale signs of a massacre killer in the making. This paranoia prompted high security in schools throughout the nation, zero tolerance policies, and protesting from religious rights groups against artists that promote hate lyrics or angry music. The media also promoted fear in the public by placing frontline news incidents such as shootings. This biased propaganda makes the public believe that they are not safe. Moore supported this phenomenon by exposing crime rates were actually declining in years time yet, the media focused on placing crimes as priority news.

The documentary, Bowling for Columbine, really influenced the nation into believing what it meant to promote. It seems that the overall message was that we, the people of our nation, “brew up” our own problems and then wonder why.